To what extent of ion neutralization can multivalent ion distributions around RNA-like macroions be described by Poisson

To what extent of ion neutralization can multivalent ion distributions around RNA-like macroions be described by Poisson–Boltzmann theory?

Xiong Gui, Xi Kun, Zhang Xi^†, Tan Zhi-Jie^‡

(color online) Net ion charge distribution Q(r) obtained from PB theory (dashed lines) and MC simulations (solid lines) around an RNA-like spherical macroion in monovalent salt solutions. The radius and surface charge density of the RNA-like spherical macroion are taken to be typical values of 20 Å and /Å², respectively. The monovalent salt concentrations are 1 mM (a), 10 mM (b), and 100 mM (c), respectively. Insets show the deviations between distributions Q(r) of PB theory and MC simulations. Distributions Q(r) and deviations for an RNA-like spherical macroion with a different radius can be found in Fig. S1 in the supplementary material.